Monday, May 7, 2012

Beercation Part 3 - The Trapp Family Brewery

Stop three of our tour brings us to a storybook place
no beer fan or movie buff should pass up while in the Stowe area - The Trapp Family Lodge.

This lodge was founded in 1950 by the
vocally talented Von Trapp family (also known as the “Trapp Family Singers”).
They originally fled Germany in 1942 after their home was confiscated by the
Nazis. Years later, Maria von Trapp, the family’s mother, wrote a book called
“The Story of the Trapp Family Singers” that was eventually adapted into a play.
That play was later developed into a motion picture you may have heard of,
called “The Sound of Music.”

While the movie was filmed in Europe and not Vermont,
the Lodge’s grounds in Stowe make you believe that parts of the film could have
been filmed there. We can pretend at least. It’s easy to. Because when you get
out of your car atop the large hill that the Lodge is perched on and gaze out
over treetops to mountains in the distance, you may find yourself saying “The
hills are alive! …with the delicious aroma of malted barley and fermenting
sugars.”

In the 1970’s, Joannes Von Trapp – the youngest child
of the singing family – took over management of the Lodge. He eventually moved
to British Columbia and then Montana, but later returned to manage the family
business again. Then just about a decade ago, he had a novel idea. He wished to
brew his own beer for the resort’s guests. The vision was to brew American
versions of the native lagers he enjoyed during trips back to his ancestral
home in the Austrian countryside.

I like the way this man thinks.

His dream became a reality in 2010. The Trapp Family
Brewery opened in a small building known as the resort’s “DeliBakery,” which is
detached from the lodge itself. The actual brewing happens on the bottom level
while the café to enjoy beers and food is upstairs.

As you enter the building, you immediately walk into
the deli where you can order sandwiches, small plates, baked goods, coffee,
tea, and their homemade lager. I didn’t realize this until later, but customers
can also walk right through the deli, past the adjoining dining area, and into
a bar area with a handful of seats. It seemed you could saddle up and order
beers and grub here as well.

The DeliBakery is simple, yet quaint in Austrian
character. Its wooden tables, booths, and chairs look handmade with touches of
traditional Austrian and Bavarian-styled carpentry. While the dining area is
almost all wood, the bar room is contrasted by an all-glass wall that looks
into a modern kitchen where cooks bake doughy European-style treats and tasty
lunch grub.

Attached to the bar area is outdoor deck with seating
that offers fine views. I couldn’t help but think that on a nice summer’s day
the deck must be an enjoyable spot on which to kill time with a brew and
sandwich. It was a bit too raw on the day DBNE visited to experience this, but
it gives us enough reason alone to visit again in warmer months.

Time for adult beverages and chow.We purchased our
beer and food from the deli area and then sat ourselves at a booth in the bar
room. Food was brought out to us from the kitchen within five or ten minutes.

There were four house lagers available to us and we
tried them all. I’ll say right now that you can do no wrong ordering any of
their beers. They’re all excellent and taste like traditional benchmark
representations for their styles.

Their Dunkel Lager had the perfect level of caramel
malt, breadiness, and earthy grain. It made me realize I hadn’t tasted
something so on-point to style in a long time.

The Vienna Lager was properly brassy in appearance and
offered the exact flavors one would expect from the Vienna style. Notes of
cereal, toffee, and floral hops were in precise proportion. Another two thumbs
up.

Their helles-style lager was surprisingly good. I
expected this one to bore me as it’s hard to make a helles exciting. But for
such a modest and light style of beer, theirs was as packed with flavor as one
could hope for while still staying in helles territory. Its notes of honey,
cracker, and grassy hops made this crisp and refreshing without tasting the
least bit lame.

Lastly, and best of all, their schwarzbier called
“Trostenbier” was superb. It ranks right up there with some of the best
schwarzbiers and black lagers I’ve ever tasted. It offered big roasted grains
with a touch of smoke and an undercurrent of unsweetened bakers cocoa. Faintly
spicy hops provide just the right amount of bitterness. It’s clean and super
drinkable.

These lagers are impressive. Are there more creative
takes on these styles? Sure. Creativity now runs rampant in American craft
brewing. But the Trapp Family Brewery showed me that the ability to nail a
traditional take on these European styles is just as exciting. Refreshing, in
fact. Their ingredients may have something to do with it. The brewery imports
all their barley and whole-flower hops from Germany, where many of the beer
styles they brew originated. (Side Note: An
effort is underway to revive the cultivation of these particular hops and
barley varietals in New England, with new strains adapted to the
local climate.)

But is there something else at play that’s helping
their lagers taste so accurate to their European roots?

Maybe this: The source
of the water for Trapp lagers is an artesian well located near the brewery.
It’s said that well water has chemical qualities similar to Austrian
spring water, making it ideal for brewing European style lagers. I’ll
believe it.

A quick note on food: The steak
sandwich I had here was another reason our visit was so enjoyable. My sandwich was
not your typical sloppy steak and cheese monstrosity from your local pizza
joint. This was an easily digestible, artisanal steak sandwich, well-season,
and topped with chimichurri sauce. I’d be happy to get it again.

After
an absolutely pleasant experience at the Trapp Family Brewery, we’re eager to
visit again. But for now, we continue our tour northward and stop in
Morrisville VT. Here, we stepped into the Rock Art Brewery, which is our focus
in Part IV to come.